36% of the CNPA exam. Sample questions below; the full library has 44 questions tagged to this domain.
Sample questions on Platform Engineering Core Fundamentals
Platform Engineering Core Fundamentals
Q1. Which of the following resources in Kubernetes is an example of declarative intent?
Reveal answer and explanations
AA `kubectl exec` session attached interactively to a running pod inside a namespace.
Incorrect. `kubectl exec` is a live interactive session and does not declare resource state.
BAn ad-hoc `kubectl run` invocation executed without saving the produced manifest anywhere.
Incorrect. Ad-hoc `kubectl run` is imperative and does not persist declared state beyond the created object.
CA `kubectl port-forward` command launched from a laptop to reach a pod in a cluster.
Incorrect. `kubectl port-forward` is a local networking action, not a declarative resource.
DA `Deployment` manifest specifying a replica count and a pod template to be reconciled.
Correct. A `Deployment` manifest expresses desired state declaratively, which controllers continuously reconcile.
Platform Engineering Core Fundamentals
Q2. A platform lead wants to reduce the blast radius of changes. Which of the following is most characteristic of a mature idempotent declarative apply?
Reveal answer and explanations
AApplying the manifest triggers a full cluster rollout even when no resource fields in the manifest changed.
Incorrect. Rolling out on every apply regardless of diff is wasteful and not a property of idempotency.
BApplying the manifest increments a version counter on every apply regardless of whether anything actually changed.
Incorrect. A monotonically increasing counter indicates non-idempotency if the counter is a side effect.
CApplying the manifest requires deleting the resource first so that a fresh instance is recreated each apply.
Incorrect. Delete-then-recreate is not idempotency; it is destructive and non-idempotent.
DApplying the same manifest twice in succession produces the same cluster state and no additional side effects.
Correct. Idempotency means repeated applies with the same input yield the same state with no extra side effects.
Platform Engineering Core Fundamentals
Q3. A platform team wants to reduce cognitive load on application developers. Which approach most directly supports this goal?
Reveal answer and explanations
AProviding golden paths with opinionated defaults for the most common application patterns in the company.
Correct. Golden paths with opinionated defaults shield developers from unnecessary complexity while guiding them to supported patterns.
BPublishing an exhaustive internal wiki covering every supported cloud service configuration knob and option.
Incorrect. Exhaustive documentation increases cognitive load rather than reducing it.
CExposing the underlying cluster YAML resources to every application team without any wrapping abstractions.
Incorrect. Raw YAML exposure without abstractions leaves developers to solve platform concerns themselves.
DAsking each developer to learn the internal implementation of every infrastructure component they use.
Incorrect. Forcing developers to learn every underlying component is precisely the cognitive overload platforms try to reduce.
Platform Engineering Core Fundamentals
Q4. A multi-tenant cluster runs 40 teams across 120 namespaces. The platform team wants to allocate compute fairly without hand-tuning per namespace. Which combination of primitives best fits this fleet-style model?
Reveal answer and explanations
APer-namespace `ResourceQuota` with a `LimitRange` setting defaults, plus a priority class for platform workloads.
Correct. Per-namespace `ResourceQuota` caps consumption, `LimitRange` supplies safe defaults, and priority classes protect platform workloads under pressure.
BA single cluster-wide `LimitRange` without any `ResourceQuota`, enforced by the platform team manually per namespace.
Incorrect. A single cluster-wide `LimitRange` does not provide per-tenant quotas.
CPer-pod `resources.limits` enforced only by application teams using a shared spreadsheet and chat reminders.
Incorrect. Relying on app teams to set limits manually does not enforce multi-tenant fairness.
DOnly `PodDisruptionBudget` per workload, which implicitly caps how much compute each namespace may request.
Incorrect. `PodDisruptionBudget` governs voluntary disruption, not compute allocation.
Platform Engineering Core Fundamentals
Q5. Which of the following is a defining practice of continuous integration?
Reveal answer and explanations
ADevelopers hold changes on long-lived branches until a quarterly integration phase is opened by release.
Incorrect. Delayed integration on long-lived branches is the merge-hell anti-pattern that CI is designed to prevent.
BA dedicated integration engineer manually merges all outstanding feature branches into mainline once a week.
Incorrect. Manual weekly merges defeat the feedback loop and automation that define CI.
CDevelopers integrate their changes into a shared mainline at least daily with automated build and test.
Correct. CI is defined by frequent integration into a shared mainline with automated build and test for fast feedback.
DTeams run integration tests exclusively in production to avoid maintaining duplicate lower environments.
Incorrect. Running integration tests only in production is risky and does not represent CI practice.
Platform Engineering Core Fundamentals accounts for 36% of the CNPA exam. Expect questions that test recall of terminology and the ability to read short scenarios — not deep configuration. Use the sample questions above as difficulty calibration; if any feel hard, the rest of our 44-question domain bank will close those gaps.